Animal hospital open to help your pets

The Country Animal Hospital recently moved into its new home in the old Fernie Sports building on Seventh Avenue.

The clinic, opened by Dr Marion, who owns an animal hospital in Eureka, is open for regular exams and vaccines at the moment, but Dr. Marion hopes that eventually it will offer a full service.

“For now, our satellite clinic in Fernie can only offer basic services, but our hospital in Eureka is full service and we can perform emergency and surgical procedures there.”

Dr. Marion said they can even offer a pick up and drop off service for animals needing treatment in Eureka.

“We are still waiting for the inspection from the BC Veterinary Board, to move

on to offering more,” he said. “At this time we can offer what we can do on a house/farm call: vaccines, exams, simple care. We offer a shuttle service to the Eureka Hospital for a nominal fee. Then pets are returned to the Fernie facility or

owners can come to Eureka and pick them up. This is working nicely for pet owners that do not have a passport.”

Horses and other large animals are also being catered for. The vet will meet you and your animal in the area across from Cincott Nursery near Hosmer.

At the hospital in Eureka, vets have started working on stem cell technology, which they hope they will be able to use on animals in the future to avoid surgery.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” said Dr. Marion. “Stem cell technology can be used to treat all kinds of things, just like in humans, and

“It takes time to build a veterinary hospital,” said Dr. Marion. “This is the third one we (Dr. and Debbie Marion) have created, and the most challenging.

“In the future we hope to bring more diagnostic capabilities and a few more surgical efforts. But we need time to grow. Our Eureka facility wants to grow too. We need to grow where the most need is and demand.”

The Fernie clinic is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1 to 4 p.m.